West Africa: Journalist Detained On Charges of Defamation, Insulting a Foreign Head of State

22 August 2025
Media Foundation for West Africa (Accra)

"I knew this would happen sooner or later," are the words used by journalist Doudou Coulibaly in a Facebook post published on August 19, 2025, when announcing that he had been summoned by the Special Division for the fight against Cybercrime (DSC).

Following the summon, Coulibaly, who is also the Programme Director of Dakar Municipal Radio (RMD) appeared before the DSC on August 20, 2025 for a hearing and was subsequently placed in police custody. According to the media, Coulibaly's summon was triggered by a referral from the public prosecutor, who asked the DSC to question the journalist about remarks he made, which were deemed offensive.

Doudou Coulibaly made some comments about Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko's visit to Türkiye and his relations with Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In his remarks, the journalist allegedly compared the meeting between the two political figures to a meeting between "underworld figures." He was also reportedly linked to the distribution of a video and some photo montages about the Prime Minister accompanied by some controversial comments.

Three charges have been brought against him: insulting a foreign Head of State, insulting a person exercising the prerogatives of the President of Senegal, and defamation.

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However, one of his defence lawyers, Elhadji Diouf, says that his client denies any involvement in the dissemination of video and photo montages, and claims to be the victim of manipulation orchestrated by a third party.

Regarding the comments made by the journalist, the lawyer added: "Doudou emphasized that his remarks referred to the two men as colleagues, peers, and counterparts receiving one another, each welcoming personalities of their own rank...in his view, it is somewhat like an underworld figure receiving another one".

Doudou Coulibaly spent the night of August 20, 2025 at the Plateau Police Station. The next day, Coulibaly was presented to the prosecutor and placed in pre-trial detention. He is scheduled to stand trial on August 25, 2025.

The case of Doudou Coulibaly is the fourth case in three months where a journalist or a critical voice is detained for offending the head of state. Before him, journalists Bachir Fofana and Badara Gadiaga, as well as former MP Moustapha Diakhaté, were arrested and prosecuted on the same charge.

The Media Foundation for West Africa calls for the release of Doudou Coulibaly. While calling on the Senegalese authorities to stop exploiting the provision on "offending the Head of State and a person exercising all or part of the powers of the Head of State," the MFWA also calls for decorum in civic expression and discourses in Senegal and across West Africa.

Read the original of this report, with tables and illustrations where appropriate.

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